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It’s been almost two months since I’ve written a post or shared anything of significance. In case you were wondering where I’ve been – I’ve been recuperating from a STROKE. A “colon stroke” to be more specific. This isn’t the first “colon armageddon,” unfortunately. Perforated Diverticulitis and Ulcerative Colitis have reared their ugly heads before.

What is a colon stroke you ask? Well, when you have a blood clot block oxygen to your brain, that’s a regular ‘stroke’. If your heart can’t get oxygen, it’s a heart attack. If a clot blocks your colon’s oxygen supply – it’s a colon stroke (Ischemic Colitis), and part of your colon begins to die. Just like people who have brain strokes, parts of their brain dies due to lack of oxygen and they are often left impaired.

Apparently, I also had a “Generalized tonic-clonic Seizure” or otherwise known as “grand mal seizure” right in front of my family before the rescue squad arrived. All I remember is my husband yelling at me to wake up – and I was thinking to myself, “shut up old man – I’m TIRED!” LOL!

Truly scary ordeal for my girls to see. I consider myself very lucky and grateful.

Do you know who developed the first mobile phone system? How large the first mobile phone was? Or that the first smartphone was released way back in … 1992? How many people lose their mobile phones each year?

This video from Sybase, an industry leader in managing, analyzing and mobilizing information, highlights the complexity and the recent explosion of mobile technology around the world, with facts and figures that will shock you!

Telemarketing – National Do Not Call List. ‘Nuff said. Although, Direct Buy never seems to get the message.

Direct Mail – only has a 1 to 2% return. (And that is if your sales copy is written by a pro)

Print Ads – costs are rising and will continue to rise as “paper” periodicals become obsolete.

E-Mail – SPAM. Ever have someone opt-in and forget, then go off on you because they say your spamming them? SMH. (Shaking my head)

These are just some of the realities of marketing in 2011. If you are a brick n’mortar business, or online, what I’m telling you is what you’ve known for quite a while now. In part 2, I’ll share more facts that you can’t ignore, and how you can benefit with mobile marketing .

Now It’s YOUR Turn! What are your thoughts? Post below, I’d love to know what you think!

Google has thrown down the Gauntlet to Facebook by introducing its latest attempt to tap into the increasingly important Social media scene. Google+ is the latest big thing to come out of the Google camp, following on from two previous social platform failures in recent years.

Google plus promises to be different from previous social failures in that this is a totally new approach from Google. This new service will also tie together all of Google’s current services such as G-mail and its popular video streaming service YouTube.

Google+ is currently only open by invitation and no actual date for a full launch has yet been announced, but it’s coming, because Google needs it. (comment below and I’ll send you an invite)

Google+ has been deliberately structured with a similar look and feel as Facebook, with some very similar functionality such as profile pictures, video uploads and news feeds

However, one of the fundamental differences is the way “Friends” will be structured in Google+. A user’s friends or contacts are grouped into specific circles of the users choosing – as opposed to the common pool of friends used in the Facebook model.

To create Google+, the company went back to fundamentals in the wake of its previous notable failures, including Google Wave and Google Buzz, a micro-blogging service whose launch was marred by privacy issues.

Google learned a lot from the failures particularly that of Google Buzz, and one of the things they learned is that there’s a real marketing opportunity for a Social Media product that addresses people’s concerns around privacy and how their personal information is shared. This is something Facebook has been grappling with since it was launched and continues to plague them to this day.

Google generally gets more than one billion visitors a month to its websites in any given month, but research suggests that people spend more time on Facebook than they do one Google and in terms of measuring success or failure online, time is more valuable than visitor numbers, something Google is all too aware of.

Just like Facebook, Google+ will have a central web page that runs a current constantly updating conversation stream of comments, photos and links being shared by its users, their contacts and friends.

If you are at all familiar with other Google services, you will notice that they all share a toolbar that generally sits across the top of the site. This toolbar allows users to access their personalised data feed. In Google + this toolbar will enable users to add the information in their other Google accounts to the news stream directly from the toolbar. They can then contribute their own information to the stream.

Google+ is also working on a live conference video chat facility, where up to ten people can jump on a conference call.

Google is also going to automatically store photos taken on mobile phones on its Internet servers, allowing a Google+ user to access the photos from any computer and share them across the service.

Google executives have given this social expansion project its highest priority and Google is keen to build its own social presence to take on Facebook directly.

Google recognizes that it’s position as the main gateway to online information could be at risk as people spend more time on other social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Google also realizes that enticing people to yet another social media site may be an uphill battle especially when they are pitching against Facebook, their main rival and the biggest Social site on the web.

To achieve dominance and set its self apart from Facebook, Google+ is taking a very hard look at personal privacy at the core of this service. This is one of the Hot topics currently causing the most consumer pain and ne of the most important aspects to get right. Privacy issues have caused Facebook and Google a lot of grief in recent years, something else Google is keen to avoid.

Social media is fast forming into the critical mass of most online users. the potential for commercialization and financial domination are only just being realized and that’s why Google is spending so much time, energy and resources trying to find its place in the growing social web.

Google+ is still under construction and won’t be widely available until later in 2011. However one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Social media is only going to become increasingly important to business in the near future and those who are best placed to take advantage of this opportunity are going to grow and grow fast.

ps. If you would like a Google + invite, just leave a comment with your addy below and I’ll send you one 🙂

http://fanpagebydesign.com is a Social Media Consultancy and design company based in Victoria British Columbia Canada. We specialize in building Facebook fanpages for small local business to give them a viable social presence and to provide websites designed and optimised for their local market. We know social media, our clients know their business. Working together we can design a social media program to grow your business using locally derived traffic and the power of social media.

It’s scary. Because yesterday, I had over 70k messages before I deleted all of 2010. Now, I’m ONLY left with 35k.

I think I’m afraid to de-clutter because I’ll delete a fantastic email for my swipe-file, or an important piece of client material. I use Basecamp to manage all of my projects, so all the files and collateral are stored there… so what’s holding me back? Nothing really.

Like most people, my inbox is sorted by the “Sent” or received date, newest item first. The best way I’ve found to do the big dump is to view my inbox by who the message is “From” and delete down the list.

But I noticed one thing that really annoys me.

When people put characters or symbols before their “from” name in their email client. Example: – Ari Galper – Unlock The Game, or **Adam Ubanski**, and yes, even one of my favorite gals *Ali Brown. Click pic to view a larger image.

Obviously, I’ve subscribed to these people because I respect and value them and want to hear their message… but when I need to search for that sender specifically I can’t always find them in my inbox. And THAT is a problem.

So when I filter my inbox alphabetically, in collapsed view, and scroll to the “A’s”, I don’t see Ari Galper. In other words, I can’t find his message because he put a silly character before his name. NOT GOOD!

For life of me, I don’t know why anyone would NOT want to be found in an inbox.

So, I consulted my colleagues.

“Other than to be seen as different or to attract the eye to an email as it sits in your inbox, why would anyone want to add characters or symbols to their email “from” address?”

Is it to throw off spam filters?

Or simply draw attention?

Something else?

One friend said, “It very well could be that these names have been black-listed somehow and by putting in the extra symbol they can bypass it.”

Oh dear. I see. A tad bit deceptive, perhaps?

When I tried to find “Ari Galper” in my inbox, he wasn’t listed with everyone else in the “A’s” because of the extra character… or, in other words, I thought I may have deleted him. See 2nd screen pic. Extra characters can bite you in the buttocks if you’re not careful!

She continued, “They may also add the extra characters if you unsubscribed from them under the regular name without the extra character. This way they keep emailing you since they hooked you the first time and you are on their list.”

Argh! No – say it isn’t so! Sneaky suckers.

Another said, “I read once that adding extra characters gets you listed at the beginning of email if someone has it set up alphabetically & as a way to stand out.”

Well, there you have it. I’ve Googled, search all avenues I could think of and there’s no logic or measured way of knowing WHY marketers do this. Must have been a guru who said so a thousand internet years ago.

So do yourself a favor, and DON’T add extra characters to your email address… you never know who or when someone is looking for your expert opinion in their inbox.

Let me ask you this…

Would you like to see someone who is creative with their “from” address, but also being SMART? Yes? Good!

I invite you to take a look at Jeff Herring’s messages in my inbox. See how EVERY from addy is categorized? THAT is super smart email marketing. Want to see Jeff’s last couple Sunday Inspiration messages? Just look for Jeff and his categorized from address. He’s such a sharp fellow. He’s made himself easy to find even in my ultra-cluttered inbox.

In an effort to not seriously tick off those who do not believe justice was served – I would have found her not-guilty also. There just wasn’t enough proof, and too many “what about xxxx?” to convict her.

Anyway, I’m really tired of CNN continually covering her story. Nancy Grace’s hack character assassination had her convicted from day one. Oh, yes – I DO think she knows what happened to Caylee, but there’s no doubt in my mind she’ll take it to her grave.

Speculation from people who hawk-eyed Orlando’s airport on FlightAware.com the early morning of her release saw the only flight leaving was one around 2am to Columbus, Ohio. That flight had a few executives on-board who had been golfing and were heading back home. No Casey Anthony in Ohio.

They say she boarded a plane that same morning, just a few hours later to Arizona around 4am from a smaller airport nearby.

Think about this: 4 hours is plenty of time to get out of Jail – cut, color and style your hair, get a spray tan, and get your nails done. Yes? So no matter where Casey is, she is completely unrecognizable. Imagine if she gained 50 pounds? She would blend anonymously into society forevermore. Ah, but there is Bella-Vita!

Is there truth in fleeing to Arizona? Iddaknow… she’s gone like yesterday. But if I were escaping harsh reality and putting myself back together, Arizona would be my preferred destination.

What people say about Donna

"This information is great. It is information that I didn't get anywhere else. I liked the nuts and bolts aspect with the reasons why explained as well."
--C.C.

"Donna knows her stuff and knows how to present it!"
--S.G.

"Donna illustrates her authenticity while being very professional. It's no wonder she has a huge following and you can too. I've learned a lot in a very short time. Thank you Donna for sharing your expertise."
-- J.Q.

"Donna you rock. Thanks so much for all the effort you put out to help me with my business"
-- C.C.

"WOW. I never even considered "HOW" I should be following or friending. You clearly spell it out for me. None of the guru's even mention this in their 2-3 hundred dollar seminars. I really love that your calls are SO AFFORDABLE and MEATY!
-- M.C.

"You provided the tools and action steps I need to become successful in social marketing - thank you!"
-- K.Z.

Thank you so much for doing this teleconference! As a newbie to social media, I really learned a lot -- and just may overcome my resistance to getting involved in that world! I apreciate your generosity & experience too
-- B.H.

I enjoyed the class very much! You had great information you provided and it really gave me some insights that i did not have before!
-- H.R.